Comparing Green Visions - Obama vs. Harper
Today is was a very historic day in Canada – US President Barack Obama, the first ever green president to be elected in the United States, arrived in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Harper.
The main topics for the agenda? Afghanistan, the economy, trade and energy.
The Vancouver Sun reported this morning that the United States and Canada will announce an agreement today to work together on energy technology that is environmentally friendly, including capturing and storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Both leaders have recently introduced major stimulus packages – the Economic Action Plan contained in Canada’s 2009 Budget released on January 27, 2009 and the $787 billion American Recovery and Investment Act signed on February 17, 2009 – and both packages contain certain proposals aimed at clean energy.
We here at Megawatt thought that it would be useful to break down and compare what the leaders propose to do in the area of clean and renewable energy.
First, compare and contrast the response in the clean energy industry to the two packages. In Canada, green energy proponents heavily criticized Budget 2009 as not doing nearly enough to invest in green tech and green jobs. By comparison, in the United States, the clean energy industry is celebrating the proposals contained in the US stimulus bill.
Second, Obama’s stimulus bill contains a 3-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects). If you recall, we commented on January 28th, that the Harper government refused to put any further funds into the ecoEnergy for Renewable Power program, effectively ending incentives and government funding for development of green and renewable energy.
While it’s true that both leaders have made provision for carbon capture and sequestration projects, it is only our country that has opted to invest in old-school nuclear energy rather that emerging clean energy projects.
Finally, Obama has earmarked $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars, $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs” and another $11 billion for “smart grid” investments. Canada’s stimulus package contains nothing comparable.
In Canada, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said during the recent budget debate that the Canadian government “will not aggravate an already weakening economy in the name of environmental progress.”
Hopefully, Obama’s visit to Canada will result in greater collaboration between the two countries and the creation of opportunities to stimulate the economy while at the same time fostering the growth of green and renewable energy and technology.
